Lullaby as Radical Praxis

[cimorene]

Pursuant to last post, I found this last night (and posted it on Tumblr as Lullaby as Radical Praxis )

Lullaby as Radical Praxis

I love this lullaby and am only sad that I haven't encountered any anti-wealth lullabies before. The language is Yiddish, but the pronunciation guide at the beginning of the songbook is not especially helpful. It's far from the only anti-wealth song in the book - there are union songs too, and poverty is overall a strong theme. It's just that it's the only one that's like "Baby, go to sleep, and BTW fuck the rich".

The songs are fascinating, but I can't recommend the book because it's got a strong 1950 Zionist flavor that turned my stomach quite a few times and made it rather hard to finish reading, which is quite something to accomplish when your only text is in the form of brief explanatory notes before sheet music.

Comments

[halojedha]

That is awesome! I sometimes sing The Diggers by the Levellers to my 9 month old, and other such rousing leftie anthems.

[cimorene]

A good stopgap until that halcyon day when socialist lullabies are commonplace.

[vass]

Are you acquainted with sovay and skygiants? They're part of a radical Jewish choir who sing a lot of anti-wealth stuff, e.g. Daloy Politsey.

[cimorene]

Nope, that's interesting. So cool that that choir exists!